Wrong Servant, Wrong time
by finch2000
Summary: During the fifth grail war, Rin Tohsaka accidentally summons Archer. Not that Archer, the other one. Let's see what happens when two different worlds are brought together. (Rated M for some blood and language)


**Standard Disclaimer:** I don't really know why I wrote this other than "I thought it would be funny". If you like it please leave a review and I might continue the story. Otherwise, I don't own the characters or anything like that. If there are lore discrepencies, I apologize but I haven't read the VN in ages. Obviously some things aren't going to make sense with a crossover like this. In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

There was a sound like a miniature bomb going off. "What the hell?" Rin swore to herself as she tried to force her way through the broken basement door. With the majority of her weight behind her shoulder, the young magus managed to force her way through the solid wood into her living room. It was a mess, of course, but she was far more concerned with the strange man rummaging through the mess. From the back side of him, Rin could tell that he was a Caucasian and a tall, well-built one at that. For a moment she stood stunned by the sheer audacity of a man breaking into her house, past all the protective spells weaved into the woodwork. It should have been impossible, but there he was.

Rin raised her hand and pointed her finger, spooling up a Gandr Shot. Whoever this was, it wasn't a Servant... at least he didn't feel like one. In fact, Rin detected nothing at all from the man, not even the ripples she could feel from a magus. But that would mean a normal human somehow got past her defenses. Nothing was adding up, so she hesitated and called out. "Stop where you are." She commanded in her typically imperious tone. If nothing else she intended to interrogate this burglar to see just what the hell was going on. "Who are you, and how did you get in my house."

"Oh, I don't know," The man responded in English, oddly enough. Thankfully Rin knew enough to get by. Though it didn't help her confusion. "Maybe I got here when you summoned me, idiot." His accent was American, and stereotypically he sounded about as brash as anyone would expect. The mage was momentarily stunned by the strangeness of it all. The man continued. "You could at least tell me where you keep the drinks." It looked like he was about halfway through rummaging through every cabinet and container in the living room.

Rin was baffled and asked, "You get summoned by me trying to summon a Servant, and your first action is to look for something to drink?" She responded in Japanese, testing the stranger's fluency.

"First of all, yes." The man finally turned around, putting his search on pause for long enough to be indignant. Rin was surprised by how handsome he was. She estimated that the man was in his early thirties, and he was dressed perfectly to match his looks. Italian leather shoes, a bespoke gray suit, and a perfectly fitted tie. Honestly, she would have been impressed with how expensive his sense of style was if a seed of burning rage weren't growing in the pit of her stomach. "Secondly, you didn't TRY to summon a Servant, you did summon one." It came as a surprise, even if it did make logical sense. That still didn't answer why she couldn't recognize him as one.

"Assassin?" Rin asked, trying the only explanation that fit. After all, only an Assassin class servant would be able to hide its presence so well, right? Every word this man said was making her angrier and angrier. How dare he treat her this way? It was even worse now that she knew for sure she was going to have to work with him for the duration of the war. How she wished there was a do-over.

The man scowled at Rin, looking as though someone had asked him something that was an utter waste of time. "No, I'm Archer." He began to glance around the room once again, spotting a cabinet that had been knocked over in the explosive summoning. The apparent Archer class servant strode across the room as though he owned the place. "And before you all 'Abbot and Costello' on me, my name is also Archer. You may have heard of me?" He looked at the young mage's face for a glint of recognition, but there was no such luck. "Sterling Archer? Legendary super spy?" After a deep sigh, he added, "Duchess? Do you not have newspapers in Japan?" Archer forced open the cabinet door and pulled out a nearly forgotten bottle of some dark brown liquor. It was a gift from her father, an exceptionally expensive bottle meant to be opened on her twentieth birthday. "This will have to do, I guess."

"Archer, don't you dare." Rin's voice was hard and demanding as she verbally put her foot down. Obviously, there was no way in hell she was going to let this asshole take something so precious. "I'm warning you, put that back right now, or else."

"Or else what?" Archer let out a bitter laughing scoff as he pulled the bottle from its wooden case. "You'll unsummon me? Good luck winning the war alone." Carelessly he began to open the bottle, as he continued in an aggressive tone of voice. "And if we're going to win, I'm going to need to be at my best, and if I'm going to be at my best I need to have a drink."

Rin stamped her foot in frustration, pointing her finger at the intruder. "Damn it, Archer, if you're going to be my servant you're going to have to do what I say." It was a critical mistake on her part. The rage boiling within her caused her to lose control of her magical circuits just long enough to accidentally spend a command spell. She wanted to punch herself as soon as she felt the arcane transaction take place, knowing that such a wide-ranged order would be as good as worthless.

However, much to Rin's astonishment, Archer stopped. With a bitter look on his face, he put the bottle back in its case. "Fine, if you want to be a ball-buster about it." He looked almost nauseated, as though the sound of Rin's command was making him want to vomit. "Can't believe I'm taking orders from a..." The servant paused and took a second to size his master up. "Wait are you a teenager? 'cause Asian chicks always look sorta young."

"I'm seventeen," Rin explained with a scowl on her face. "And if you-"

"Fine." Archer cut her off. "I'm sure if Harry Potter can save the world at your age, you'll live long enough to wish for a pony or something." Was he sulking? Rin was confused as to why a man in his thirties would be acting so childish. "And before you ask, yes it means I won't bother hitting on you either."

Rin wasn't going to ask but the suggestion and his attitude brought back some of the anger that caused her to blow the command spell. She wanted to knee him in the groin, but she understood the futility of such an action. To her surprise, Archer began to silently walk towards the front door. "Where the hell are you going?" She demanded. "I didn't say that we're going out for reconnaissance."

"Independent action, so blow me. And I'm not going for recon, I'm going to the nearest convenience store to get some goddamn liquor." Archer drew a small black rectangle from his coat pocket and showed it off to his master. To the eye, it looked like a credit card, but the surface swirled with obvious magical energy, whatever it was, it was as good as a low-rank Noble Phantasm. "Unlimited Expense Accounts of Isis, I can buy anything I deem necessary to complete the mission... Or I can just buy whatever. Like booze. Stay inside and don't get yourself blown up. If some servant is dumb or crazy enough to try and bust into this... Winchester mansion for mages instead of ghosts, just waste another command spell and call me."

The door slammed behind Archer as he left, leaving Rin in a state of shock. Was he serious? Can servants even get drunk? A piece of the debris from the failed summoning clattered to the floor as the magus cleared space on her sofa and sat down, feeling defeated. Whoever this Archer was, she was stuck with him as a partner and it was starting to look like three command spells wouldn't be enough to control him. One way or another, if she wanted to win she would need to totally rework her strategy.

As Rin waited for Archer to return she began to consider his capabilities. He didn't appear to be a servant at all, so she couldn't intuitively know what his stats were. This was annoying, to say the least, but it could have been a blessing. If his own master couldn't detect him in any way, that meant that nobody could. It was possible, but unconfirmed, that Archer had the strengths of both an Assassin and an Archer. The young master could work with that. Though she would have to be careful. Rin had expected to summon Saber and fight through the rest of the servants with the martial class' brute force. Either way, there was still hope of victory.

The front door crashed open with a triumphant cry from Archer. He was carrying bags and boxes under his arms. "Holy shit, you can buy all this just from the convenience store? How did I not know Japan was this awesome." Altogether he had around twenty bottles of all shapes and sizes. Vodka, gin, absinthe, whiskey, brandy, tequila, and herbal liqueurs.

"Your opinion on a country is based entirely on access to alcohol?" Rin asked bitterly regretting her summoning once again.

Archer looked at her with a blank face, as though she had asked what color the sky was. "Basically, yeah. Besides, this should only get me through a weekend at best."

"How on earth did someone with such a big drinking problem gain status as a heroic spirit?" Rin was struggling to contain her bitterness. There was something uniquely infuriating about this servant, and the young mage had to force back her fury. Even with the command spell making him more pliable, Archer was a handful. "I've never even heard of you." Rin prepared for the grail war by reading up on heroes from all ages, but she didn't think to consider heroes from the modern age. Another example of her fatal flaw, messing up at the last moment.

"Because I'm the best damn field agent that ever lived." Archer gestured towards himself with his thumb. "Plus, it's next to impossible to get me drunk because of my built-up tolerance." He shrugged, looking as arrogant as ever. "It's not my fault you don't follow the news, I'm sure some of my missions have shown up there though they probably didn't always print my name... Come to think of it the better I am at my job the fewer people know about it." Another hurdle for Rin to face. She

knew that a servant's power is tied to their fame, and if Archer were as good as he claimed to be he wouldn't be very famous at all.

Rin bit her tongue and swallowed her anger. "Fine, what's done is done. I wanted Saber, but we can still do this." She knew that no amount of effort could change her servant, and giving up wasn't an option. "We can discuss strategy in the morning," She paused the rub her temples. "My head is killing me. I'm going to bed. Your first task is to clean up this mess."

"Are you out of your mind? Don't you have a valet or a butler or some magical walking mops to clean up for you? You live in a magical mansion that would make Yen Sid envious. How can you not have someone to help you clean up?" Archer sat down on some of the rubble and opened a bottle of scotch. "I'll listen to you when it comes to strategy, only because I literally have to, but I'm not going to be your maid."

Rin huffed angrily out of her nose wanting urgently to tell Archer off. However, she knew that she would need to pick her battles with only two command spells remaining. It was far too late in the evening to deal with the servant's shit. As she prepared for bed she realized exactly why her new familiar made her so angry. In a way, he reminded her of Kirei. Not in temperament or personality, but he had a unique talent to return and hold his own against her verbal volleys. Few people could claim this honor. He may have acted like a fool, but this super spy had a certain animal cunning and acerbic wit. Though it chafed to admit it, that annoying intelligence could have been very useful in the battles to come. Rin was tempted to continue brooding over her chances of survival, but she knew that she needed sleep to be at her best.

Sleep came quickly once she silenced her thoughts and forced herself to relax. Dreams came, though they were vague and hard to remember. There were visions of gunshots, explosions, intrigue, and stealth. Though she couldn't follow the stories of the dreams, she began to instinctively understand Archer a little better. Though he played the fool it became clear to Rin that his talents and instincts allowed him to maintain control of many dire situations. To Rin's shock, he seemed competent even if he seemed to intentionally make things harder on himself in some cases.

Rin awoke with a massive headache and a disturbing sense of foreshadowing. When she stepped into the living room she wasn't even surprised to see that it looked just the same as it was when she went to bed. Although she was surprised that the bottle of alcohol her father left for her was still untouched. "I don't suppose you did anything useful while I was asleep?"

"How could I? You didn't tell me to do anything useful, Master." Archer's voice dripped with obvious sarcasm. "Unless you think having a clean house will help you win, somehow."

"Fine, I'll deal with it later." Rin decided to drop the issue and move on. Once she realized that it was too late to go to school she figured it would be better to explore the city a little and see if she could find anything that would give her an advantage. Of course, the possibility of combat crossed her mind, but she didn't expect and surprise attacks in the daytime, at least not this early in the war.

The two of them stepped out of Rin's house and into the street. Just then something occurred to her. "Why aren't you dematerializing? People are going to take notice of a well-dressed foreigner walking around with me." Around town, this wouldn't be an issue but with classmates and people, she knew this would quickly become an issue.

"No, I don't do any of that David Copperfield bullshit." In a tone that dug thorns into Rin's sense of mage pride. "Getting involved with this mess is bad enough as it is. Anyway, just tell people I'm your American uncle. Blue eyes and black hair? That should be good enough to trick anyone short of a geneticist." Rin was almost impressed with how quickly he came up with a believable lie. "Besides if anyone has seen your house they'd expect your relatives to dress well. You've got to be the richest teenager in the country." The servant lead the way out the front gate and directed Rin's attention to the parking space a few meters down the road. In the space was an old-model, black muscle car. Rin didn't know much about classic cars, but it looked like something a real gear-head would love to have.

"Is this part of your Noble Phantasm too?" Rin asked, wondering just how useful a car could be in a fight. "I hope you don't intend to run servants over with me in the car."

"I bet you I could." Archer patted the hood of the vehicle, confidently. "This baby is even tougher than it was in my real life, and it could withstand an impact with all but the biggest of servants. It has oil slicks, shredding spikes, twin machine guns in the grill, it's bulletproof and finally, there's a mini-bar in the glove compartment." Without a second thought, the servant drew a pistol from somewhere within his jacket. "My noble phantasm is The Armory of Isis, any and all equipment or weaponry I could possibly need is right here in my coat..." He paused to collect his thoughts, "Or you know, anywhere I could need it."

"I see." Rin had to stop and think about how this ability would affect her strategy. It wasn't necessarily terrible, but modern weaponry like guns were famously ineffective against servants for a variety of reasons. Either they were too agile and could avoid bullets or deflect them, or they were too tough and simply shrugged off the projectiles. However, these guns being a part of a noble phantasm may have had some bearing on their strength. As much as she hated the thought, she would need to wait and see how much damage a shot from Archer's guns could do. "This isn't America, so I don't think I need to remind you that if you show any guns to normal people they'll call the police."

"Oh nice, stereotypes." Archer rolled his eyes "While you're at it, why not remind me that everyone knows karate and that I can look forward to buying schoolgirls' underwear in a vending machine." The servant returned the pistol to the apparently infinite space within his coat with a scowl. "Don't even get me started on tentacle porn."

Rin got into the passenger side of the car without a response, hopefully signaling that she was done with the conversation. There was no way in hell that she was going to admit that he had a point there.

Archer slid into the driver's seat with a quick, smooth motion that made it clear he was an expert driver. "So what you just want to drive around the city? What exactly do you expect to see?"

Rin shrugged her shoulders with an air of confidence. "Just giving you a feel for the city mostly, but if we drive near another master's atelier I might be able to pick up on it." Once inside the car's passenger seat, Rin's eyes were drawn to the luxury styled interior. She hadn't spent much time in cars, but this one seemed unusually indulgent. What drew her eye more was a series of buttons and switches that she couldn't identify. It came to her that if Archer really is a secret agent his car must have all sorts of hidden functions beyond the ones he listed earlier.

Archer interrupted Rin's thoughts as if he had been reading her mind. "Don't touch anything unless you want to get ejected from the car." In reality, he just noticed her subtle glances and body language, a fact that the master quietly acknowledged. As she started to look beyond the surface, Rin noted the fact that Archer was pretty good at reading people, whether by instinct or by active observation. She'd never admit this, but she was starting to grow content with her new servant. He was no Saber, but she could see herself pulling out a victory with his help.

The two of them cruised around Fuyuki and Shinto carefully as Rin felt her way around the cities for any trace of magic. The Matou mansion didn't seem any different from usual, not that she expected any different. As per Rin's advice, they steered a wide path around Ryuudou temple, as it was a great candidate for a mage's workshop. Other than those locations, there was nowhere in the area that stood out, magically speaking.

"Well, that was a tremendous waste of our time. If we keep that up we can just bore everyone else to death." Archer returned the car to its parking spot with a deeply bothered face.

"You shouldn't be so eager to get into a fight, Archer." Rin reprimanded him. "With your skill set, we need to avoid fighting unless we're prepared with an extreme advantage. Picking arbitrary fights will just get us killed." She got out of the car and lead the way back inside. The living room was obviously still a mess, so instead, they made her father's study their base of operations.

It was late in the evening, and the two of them had wasted the whole day prowling through the city. At the very least it gave them a good feel for the city and let them know that all of the masters were either deep in hiding, or at Ryuudou temple. "Where else would mages want to set up bases? Someplace where they can find a four-leafed clover?" Archer asked. It seemed to grate on him that he didn't understand magecraft or how it worked. He spoke as though magic were whimsical nonsense that didn't follow any rules.

This, of course, drove Rin nuts, but she took a deep breath and squashed the anger back. "There are ley lines, I'm sure you've heard of them. Major intersections run beneath several key locations in the area." Rin explained. "One is right beneath us, one is at Ryuudou temple. Those are places we can be certain that there's at least one master is staying. Next, there's the empty park in Shinto and the Fuyuki church. The church is neutral territory and we searched the park with no results. So those locations are almost certain to be empty.

Other than those places it's really a crap-shoot, but we can at least take solace in the fact that masters in other locations won't be able to benefit from the ley lines."

"So right now our options are to wait and sit on our thumbs or charge headlong into a deathtrap. Terrific." Archer sat back and poured a glass of bourbon.

"Sadly, yes. Going out on patrol is the most active option we've got and it puts us at a disadvantage." Rin bit her thumb in irritation. "I'll sleep on it, if we don't have a proper plan by tomorrow we'll start regular patrols." Rather than wait for Archer's reply, she decided to leave him to his drinking and head to bed. She didn't bother asking him to wake her in the morning.

This time she slept without dreaming and awoke to the sound of her alarm clock. Reminding herself that Archer was determined to be as unhelpful as possible, Rin forced herself out of bed. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your point of view, the mage was awake early enough to go to school. "You're going to school when there's a war going on? What kind of teenager would pass up that excuse?"

"Unfortunately the administration won't accept a note from the local priest." Rin started to consider just ignoring everything her servant said, but she knew that communication was the key to success. "And you're coming with me. There's a clear line of sight from some of the roofs of the buildings in the shopping district. I want you to drop me off at the school, then go take a position on one of them. I assume you have a sniper rifle or something to keep an eye on me. If by any chance there's a threat at the school, they'll see a master with no servant, an irresistible target... Not that I'm expecting there to be any danger."

"Yeah great plan, no one would ever expect a master to be stupid enough to put three-quarters of a mile between herself and her servant. What if you run into a servant I can't just shoot?" Archer oddly didn't sound against the idea, at least not completely. "If I need to go there in person you'll be dead before I can get to my car."

"I hate to say it, but if your guns can't hurt something I'm as good as dead anyway." Rin shrugged with apparent disregard for her own life. "Unless you have some other tricks up your sleeve." Obviously, Rin had a few backup gems in case things got hairy, similar to a mundane flashbang grenade. At best, things like that could stall a serious threat, but Archer was correct. If there was something he couldn't kill with a few well-placed shots, Rin was as good as dead. It was a sobering thought, but there was no point in lingering on it.

The drive to school was nicer than Rin had expected, despite the smell of alcohol which she was rapidly getting used to. For once Archer was relatively quiet, only chiming in with weak jabs that Rin chose to ignore. She found that he wasn't so bad in times like those, as long as she didn't respond to his insults. Before long she was at the school gate, after being dropped off a block or so away to avoid suspicion. The instant she stepped onto the grounds, she felt her stomach drop. There was something terribly wrong. "Archer, someone's set up a magic field. There may be a master here after all." She communicated with him telepathically, another bonus granted to masters.

"I wish you wouldn't talk right into my damn ear like that," Archer complained about something trivial, as Rin had already come to expect. "It'd be just as good to use an earpiece or a codec or something... And what do you mean 'magic field'? That could be anything."

Rin tried her hardest to continue walking around as though nothing were wrong, but the crushing oppressive feeling of the latent magic field felt as though it were crushing her heart. "It's aggressive, whatever it is. I'll need to stay after school to investigate further. As soon as everyone leaves I want you to get down here."

"Whatever Velma I'll get the mystery machine there as soon as possible." Archer audibly took a swig of some sort of alcohol, and Rin heard the clatter of a weapon being loaded. The thought crossed her mind that a drunk with possible anger issues and a definite bad temper had the entirety of her school in his scope. She shuddered from a feeling just slightly worse than the magic field.

The rest of the day was somewhat hellish as Rin endured the magic field as Archer made snide comments about the students and teachers he observed from his sniper post. Even though she wasn't in much of a joking mood, she couldn't help but crack a smile once or twice. However, she'd never admit that she was finding his commentary amusing. Once classes ended, the magus hid on the rooftop, waiting for Archer to signal that the coast was clear.

However, as she waited she found herself drawn to the center of the roof where she found an angry-looking, red rune. Archer arrived just as the sun was going down, and he quickly found his way to the rooftop. He stood over Rin's shoulder with a mix of curiosity and boredom. "So what? That's what's causing this weird atmosphere?"

"Part of it anyway. I can delay it for a while, but I can't just get rid of it." It wasn't too complicated to use some of her mana to wipe away some of the runes, but it was like a stain that just refused to be cleaned. "Either way, the best I can do is weaken it. There should be another activation point somewhere on the grounds."

"That will probably have to wait." Archer tapped Rin on the shoulder and directed her attention to the water tower. Crouched there was a man in a blue suit, holding a blood-red spear behind her head.

"You're an interesting one, aren't you? Wandering around like a human in modern clothes." The mystery spearman said with a wickedly jovial tone. "Is that some kind of camouflage? I'm not detecting any servant, but I can smell the blood on you from a mile away."

Archer and Rin both went tense and slowly began to shift their bodies into position. Rin was preparing to run, as she could sense they were penned in. However, Archer was slowly reaching for his holster. Rin realized that the mystery servant (presumably Lancer) looked obscenely fast. Only a few servants would be a match, so running wouldn't be an option for Archer. They had to stand and fight, despite the disadvantageous position. "Stay back and don't get in my way, unless you want to get shot in the back on accident," Archer warned as he positioned himself slightly sideways with one eye on Rin.

For an instant, Rin felt a chill as her subconscious sensed an imminent threat. She froze. Lancer was no longer on his perch, no longer in sight at all. She thought she heard the sound of metal slicing through the air, but just as the sound neared her neck the sound was shattered by a deafening bang a meter from her ear. Archer had just saved her from certain death.

"You can move and dodge all you want, but if you stop to attack her for even a second I'll ventilate your goddamn head," Archer called out, pointing his Walther pistol uncomfortably close to Rin. Her ears rung from the gunshot and she found herself unable to move. Somehow, Archer made himself the only viable target. As long as Rin kept a low profile she would be safe from Lancer's spear.

The spearman was across the roof from them, in a bestial pose with both feet and a hand firmly planted on the ground. Needless to say, the other hand clutched the red spear, pointing it like a bee's stinger. "Not bad," Lancer admitted. "But I'm too fast for a clumsy weapon like that." In the blink of an eye, Lancer traveled from his position across the roof to striking range, only this time he was thrusting his weapon towards Archer's chest.

However, Archer responded in an unexpected way. He stepped forward and into Lancer's guard, he simply sidestepped the thrust and moved into range. With a quick motion, he spun the pistol around and mashed it into Lancer's temple. The enemy hopped back and away, establishing a place on top of the fence surrounding the rooftop. "Good trick, but if that's all you can do this fight will never end."

Lancer made several more skirmishes, dashing forward trying to strike in a new way. However, each time Archer quickly dodged, stepped into Lancer's guard and struck. On the fourth attempt, Archer did something unexpected. He grabbed Lancer's spear arm with his free hand and rammed his fist into his opponent's abdomen. "Was that supposed to be your finishing move? What's your plan now?" Lancer wound up his free fist to cave in Archer's skull.

"Unload." Rin heard a series of rapid bangs, she couldn't count them but it must have been well over two dozen. Lancer delivered a weak left hook and freed himself from Archer's grip, gushing blood from his gut. At some point, without being noticed, Archer had replaced the Walther with an Uzi submachine gun. With the last punch, instead of striking with the grip of the pistol he stuck the barrel of the second weapon straight into Lancer's torso.

Unluckily, Lancer wouldn't be killed that easily. The spear expert leaped once again to the chainlink fence, leaving a heavy trail of blood behind him. "That's good enough for now." the spearman said through gritted teeth. "Besides, someone's been watching me from below." With a quick flick of his arm, Lancer flung his spear straight down at the ground below them before he dropped down as well.

After a moment of silence. Rin took a deep breath and tried to dissipate the tension that had frozen her in place. Her first thought was to check on the witness, for reasons she couldn't explain. From any angle on the ground, no one should have been able to see Rin or Archer, but there was an inexplicable sense of dread that compelled her to take the fire escape to the ground as soon as possible. Lancer was long gone. The master considered ordering her servant to give chase but with his

limited mobility, there would be no point.

Rin arrived to find a male student lying in the dirt, curled up in a loose fetal position. The dreadful feeling in her stomach worsened once she faced the reality of the situation. There was a widening pool of blood beneath him, spreading from the deep stab wound on his chest. One of her classmates, probably someone she knew was dead. Or not quite dead yet. In the darkening evening, the mage's eyes spotted weak, shallow breaths. Archer, on the other hand, glanced around the area, seemingly not bothered by the dying boy. With trembling hands, Rin turned the boy onto his back to get a look at his face. Any composure she was maintaining immediately vanished. Not only was it someone she knew, but it was someone she was rather fond of, Shirou Emiya.

Whatever words she wanted to say, she held back, unwilling to appear so emotional in front of her servant. "I know you mages are supposed to kill witnesses, right?" Archer asked with a flat tone. It was hard to tell what he was feeling if he was feeling anything at all, but he at least wasn't going to go out of his way to antagonize Rin this time. "Even if I drove us, there's no way we'd get to a hospital in time." Finally, she could recognize pity in Archer's actions, and it made her angry that she let her distress show on her face.

"There's still a way." Rin pulled her father's pendant from her pocket and prepared her magic circuits. Ten years of stored magical energy, the ultimate trump card her father left behind. That amount of mana could almost perform miracles. It struck her as a shame that such a powerful weapon had to be wasted like that, but still, the decision was easy.

The pair drove home in dead silence, unwilling to speak of their conflict with Lancer. It was a stalemate, but they had tipped their hand to an enemy, showing their abilities while not learning much in return. On top of that, Rin had decided to use the strongest weapon she had to save the life of some outsider.

Once they got inside Rin's house Archer finally felt like opening his mouth again. "So now what? Your boyfriend's safe so maybe you should stay away from school for a while."

Rin shot him a dirty glare in response. "He's not..." She took a deep breath. If nothing else, this was excellent practice to remain calm under pressure. "It's dangerous but I don't think Lancer's master would be someone from school. The magic field didn't seem like something he would be capable of either. If nothing else, I can't ignore the field's presence. I need to keep going to school to keep an eye on whoever set it up."

"Fine, you're the boss. But don't complain when that field turns you into a toad along with everyone else in the building." Archer seemed almost as weary as Rin felt, so the fight must have taken a lot out of him. Thankfully he didn't take any meaningful wounds, reminding her that things could have gone much worse. "But you've already wasted so much on that other kid, so you may as well go all the way in protecting him, right?"

"Shut up." Rin tiredly responded. However, that made her realize something important. If Lancer knew that the witness he had tried to kill was still alive, naturally he'd go back to finish the job. "We're getting back in the car, I'll give you directions. Move." She spoke with a simple authoritative command, realizing there wasn't much time to lose.

Once they arrived at the Emiya household, the master and servant got out of the car, only to find themselves face to face with a blonde girl in silver armor some twenty feet down the road from them. In her hands was what appeared to be a swirling mass of air. Rin faltered for an instant as her heart skipped a beat, and she was captured by the sheer beauty of the girl in the moonlight. "That's Saber." She mumbled to herself, almost as if she were talking in her sleep.

Archer rolled his eyes at Rin's reaction. "Take a picture." He suggested sarcastically. "That's Saber?" He asked, incredulously. "The strongest servant? She's like fourtee- Holy shit!" The servant's insults were cut short by the realization that Saber was now rushing straight at him at an alarming pace. He quickly drew his Walther and fired two shots. The first ricocheting off of Saber's shoulder armor and shattering a nearby streetlamp. The second shot was closer to the mark, but it just grazed the enemy's face, leaving a long red mark along her cheek.

With no weapon to block with, Archer had no choice but to intercept the slash with both of his forearms. Luckily, the attack didn't cut them both off, but it did cut right to the bone. Without hesitation, Saber kicked Archer in the gut, sending him flying to the ground. Saber pointed her blade directly at Rin with a stern glare. By all means, this looked like the end for her. She thought she would have been angry that her grail war would only last a short while, but somehow she felt calm when she looked at the golden-haired servant. It was like looking at a wildfire or some force of nature. It was terrifying and humbling, but in some way beautiful.


End file.
